Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1887-09-24
JESS.
H.RlDER HAceARDs
Futh'Tot 'Nps sofonaoEsmrcs SkSEte.

stroking his golden beard "that will depend
upon what missile has to say; and upon the
verdict of the court" he added, by way of an
afterthought
"On the verdict of the court, hal hal"
chuckled his wicked satellite. "On the ver-
dict of the court, yes! yes! and the baas
will be president, hal ha! One needs no
witchcraft to guess the verdict. And If the
court finds Uncle Silas guilty, who will do
the shooting, baasg'
II have not thought of that; the time has
not come to think of it. 1t does not matter;
anybody can carry out the sentence of the
law"
"Baas," said the Kaffir, II have done much
for you and had little pay. have done ugly
things. have read omens and made medi-
cines, and 'smelt out yoar enemies. Will
you grant me a favora Will you let me shoot
| Om Croft if the court finds him guiltys 1t is
not much to ask, baas. / am a clever wiz
zard. and deserve my pay"
"Why do you want to shoot himp
because he fogged me once, years ago,
for being a witch doctor, and the other day
he hunted me off the place. Besides, it is so
/ nice to shoot a white man. l should like it
better" lie went on, with smack of the lips,
| "if it were missile, who set the dog on me.
would"-
| In moment Frank Muller had the aston
ished ruffian by the throat and was kicking
and shaking him as though he were a toy.
/ His brutal talk of Bessie had appealed to such
manliness as he had in him. and, whatever his
own wickedness may have been, he was too
madly in love with the woman to let her name
be taken in vain by man whom, though he
held his ''magic" in superstitious reverence,
he yet ranked lower than dog. With his
hiOl,n I1 acfa fan ~
tension, and half drunk as he was, Frank
Muller was no more person to be played
with or irritated than mad bull.
"You black beast!p he yelled, "if you ever
dare to mention her name again like that /
will kill you, for all your wltchcraft," and he
hurled him with such force up against the
wall of the hut that the whole place shook.
The man fell, lay for moment groaning and
then crept from the hut on his hands and
| knees
| Muller sat scowling from under his bent
brows and watched him go. When he was
gone he rose and fastened the door behind
him, and then suddenly burst into tears; the
result, no doubt, of the mingled effects of the
drink, mental and physical exhaustion and
the never resting passion lone can scarcely
call it love- that ate away at his heart like the
/ worm that dieth not.
"Oh, Bessie, Bessie!" he groaned, II have
done it all for you. Surely you cannot be
angry when I have killed them all for youi
/ Oh, my darling, my darling! If you only
knew how l love you! Oh, my darling! my
darling!" and in an agony of passion he flung
himself down on the rough pallet in the
corner of the hut and sobbed himself to sleep.
Somehow Frank Muller's evil doing did not
make him any the happier, the fact of the
hat inl-a
must be not only without conscience, but also
without passion Now Frank Muller was
tormented with very effective substitute for
the first, superstition, and his life was liter
ally overshadowed by the last, for the beauty
of girl possessed the power to dominate his
widest moods and infiict upon him torments
that she herself was incapable of even imagin-
ing.
At the first light of dawn Hendrix crept
humbly into the hut and woke his master,
and within half an hour they were across the
Vaal and on the road to Wakkerstroom.
AS the light increased so did Mullers spirits
rise, till at last, when the red sun came up in
glory and swept away the shadows, he felt
as though all the load of guilt and fear that
lay at his heart had departed with them. He
could see now that the two Beers being killed
by fash of lightning was a mere accident
happy accident indeed; for had it not been
for that he himself would have had to kill
them, if he could not by any other means
have got the warrant from them. AS it was
he had forgotten the warrant; but 1t did not
matter much, he reflected. Nobody would
be likely to find the bodies of the two men
and horses under the lonely bank there. Ger
tainly they would not be found until the
aasvogels had picked them clean. They
2 Ix,.
il they were found it was probable that the
paper would have rotted or blown away, or
at the worst, be SO discolored as to be unread
able For the rest, there was nothing to con-
meet him with the murder, now that the two
accessories were dead. Hendrix would prove
an alibi for him. He was a useful man,
| Hendrix. Besides who would believe that it
was a nurders Two men were escorting an
Englishman to the river; somehow they be-
| came involved in quarrel; the Englishman
shot them, and they shot the Englishman and
his companion. Then the horses plunged
into the Vaal and upset the cart, and there
was an end of it. He could see now how well
things had gone for him. He was practically
placed beyond suspicion.
And then he fell to thinking of the fruits Of
his honest labors, and his cheek grew warm
with the mounting blood, and bis eyes flashed
with the fire of youth In two days-forty-
eight hours-at the outside, Bessie would be
in his arms. He could not miscarry now; he
was in absolute command there. Besides,
Hendrix had read it in his omens long ago.
Mooifontein should be stormed on the NOR
row if that were necessary, and Om Silas
Croft and Bessie should be taken prisoners;
and then he knew how to put ON the screw.
That talk about shooting on the previous
night had been no idle threat. She should
yield herself to him or the old man should die,
and then he would take her. There could be
no legal consequences from that now that the
British government was surrendering. 1t
would be a meritorious act to shoot a rebel
Englishman.
Yes, it was all plain sailing now. How
long had it taken him to win her-three
yearsl He had loved her for three years.
Well, he would have his reward; and then,
his mind at rest about his passion, he would
turn it to those far reaching, ambitious
schemes of which the end was something like